Artist's StatementTraditionally, Easter symbolism centers around the ideas of rebirth, fertility, bunnies, Jesus, and marshmallow Peeps. While Easter has been widely secularized in the West, it is still a religious holiday, and as such the commercialization of Easter with fluffy, sugary, marginally edible snacks should be looked upon with a critical eye. Should this co-optation of sacred ideas for corporate gain be dismissed as a harmless by-product of capitalism, shunned by the devout and free-thinking alike, or burned at the metaphorical stake like a witch or heathen in days gone by? In Peep No More, the Peep is an Easter effigy. The lid may be ajar, but consumerism has sealed his fate. He is dead, boxed, and buried. There is no rebirth, modern society has killed him and the God he claims to represent.

Anybody out there share out your music collection with Simplify Media? I just recently activated my account and shared out my collection, and I must say it's pretty awesome. I can stream my entire music collection to my iPhone anywhere I have a cell signal, and the quality is great. Plus it interfaces directly with LyricWiki so you can read along with the lyrics at the click of the button. I really wish it would run as a service so I could access my other iPhone apps simultaneously, but other than that quibble I'm sold.

Wanna listen to my library? Well I want to listen to yours too. Add me (andypixel).

So here we are at day three of beard month. So far so good, but the worst is yet to come. Here I am this evening:

I've attempted a beard five times before, and it's never really qualified as a success. The first time was when I went on a seven-week Europe trip with my family in 1997. I didn't shave the whole trip, but then again I was only 22, so my follicles were still a little green, as it were.

My second attempt was for the inaugural Mustache Party at Nerdhaus in 2002. Here's a film I made chronicalling my facial hair progress through the six-week growing cycle. I call it Mustache: Welcome to my Face.

The third attempt was for Mustache Party Mark II in 2003. Dang, this beard is looking kinda bushy in this photo, but only along the jawline. What's up with the chin and upper lip?

Attempt number four was in 2005 for the third and final Nerdhaus Mustache Party. A little more definition, perhaps a bit shapelier, yes. But man, I don't got nothing against those Dahlquists. Look at that thing!

The most recent attempt was in 2005, when I didn't shave during the marathon coding sessions spent trying to launch Indieflix by deadline. I think that beard fared better than my previous attempts, but it's hard to tell because I only spent about three weeks on it.

How will I fare this time? Only time will tell.

Also, are Buster and I the one ones doing Beard Month here in Seattle? I haven't checked the Facebook group so I don't know.

While in Boston for business, I uploaded a few photos to this new "Flickr" thing so that I could easily include them in an LJ post. This is photo #1. Currently the latest photo in my stream is #12,001.

Post seven pieces of music you are into right now. No matter the genre, lyrics or no, they must simply be songs or music you're enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to find out what they are listening to.

Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa, and SpinderellaI cannot get enough of this song lately. Their album as a whole is pretty good -- snotty, noisy british dance punk with hooks here and there, but this song in particular really builds up good tension with a talking-in-a-british-accent-over-melodic-doot-doot-doos and then fucking kills with the payoff. Five stars.

Hot Snakes - Plenty for AllGreat understated, hyper melodic punk anthem. There are like a million great melodies and hooks in this song, and many of them are hinted at rather than explicitly played. This has kinda been my number one favorite song for the past six months.

Gnarls Barkley - WhateverI just like it when he tells his mom to shut up. Shut up Mom!

Future of the Left - adeadenemyalwayssmellsgoodIngo's right: Manchasm is the better Future of the Left song. But I really love the intro buildup and crushing bass of the opening riff. Mclusky was a better band, but I gotta keep this list somewhat current, right?

Silversun Pickups - Rusted WheelI was never a big Smashing Pumpkins fan. I think Silversun Pickups do a better Smashing Pumpkins than the Smashing Pumpkins did. Just about as emo as you can get, with breathy, over-produced boy vocals, singing about changing seasons and probably other things that I'd just as soon phase out. Regardless, this is an ideal song to listen to while walking through the rain at night. So moody!

Styrofoam w/ Sarah Shannon - I Found LoveI honestly can't really stand ex-Velocity Girl (and Seattlite) Sarah Shannon's delivery of the vocals in this song -- it's a little too matter-of-fact, a little too smug, a little too pre-meditated -- but she has a beautiful voice, and this song is beautiful too. Soft, atmospheric, and well-crafted, if a bit syrupy.

Old 97's - BroadwayI got this song on a mix (the excellent Neverending Internet Mixtape, curated by my friend Rob) and since I hadn't been paying attention to the liner notes I thought this was Conor Oberst for the first half-dozen listens or so. Never been a big Bright Eyes fan but I can't deny that the man is a killer songwriter. So is Rhett Miller, evidently. Evocative, stripped down, rollicking.

Our friend Marlow is the curator of the Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), located adjacent to Cafe Racer on Roosevelt. For their opening, we loaned our prized possession, the King Bowler, to the gallery. King Bowler was a housewarming gift from a true connoisseur of bad art, Mr. kickthebobo.

The rain was most unwelcome this morning as I trudged to the bus, taking care to lift my wings clear of the puddles. Luckily my rocket is covered in waterproof duct tape. It's going to be cold tonight. And I have no pockets! Nobody said Halloween was convenient.

Ingo and I had just sat down to dinner when the power went out. It's black as far as the eye can see, although the skyscrapers downtown still sparkle. The oven was on when the power went out, and the controls are completely electronic. Here's to hoping the electricity comes back on before we go out for the night so I can turn the damn thing off!

Today there is a Westcoast Kickball League Quintuple-header at BF Day Playfield in Fremont. There will be sunshine, beer, ridiculous costumes, BBQing, dance parties, theatrics, and probably nudity. You should come root for your favorite team or just spend the afternoon in the park with a cold one and a hot dog.

I recommend not missing the last game of the day. My team (Bluetooth Fannypack) has teamed up with our opponents, Awesomtown!!1!, and switched the rules of kickball around a bit. For this game, when a ball is caught, it's considered "locked" for multiball. Teams can redeem their multiball kick at any time. It's going to be madness.

The weather sure didn't cooperate, but all teams involved made up for it with some incredible taunts, inappropriate costumes, synchronized dance routines, many adult beverages, and of course top-notch kickball.

Best match-up of the day had to be Danger Moustache v. Ball Deep. The score flip-flopped nearly every inning. Floyd kicked a home run every at-bat. Barry played in a weighted bra and a mumu and still slid into every base. The last play of the game saw Danger Moustache fall 17-16, and, adding injury to insult, Floyd's knee blew out as he attempted to field the ball. Condolences and congratulations all around.

Best taunt of the day goes to Git Sum, who declared war on Awesomtown!!1! complete with flaming spears, jousting bicyclists, masked marauders, and a tiny drum kit.

My favorite moment of the day came when the Comptroller came up to kick for Awesomtown!!1! with his adding machine and sizable pile of folders and files in hand. He nailed a line drive, dropped all his shit and just went for it, leaving a trail of ticker tape in his wake. It was beautiful.

Sex Move brought back the synchronized dancers and Bluetooth Fannypack brought back the shiny silver soundsystem. WKL 2008 is going to rock.

This is the ticket stub for the first big rock show I ever went to. Come to think of it, I never saw any live music when I was a kid, not even at the Fair. The very first show I saw was at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma and it featured Sage, My Name, and a few other unknown bands. I "moshed" for the first time and very nearly hyperextended my knee.

This show was at the Paramount and featured Mudhoney, Supersuckers, Seaweed, Pond, and Earth. A bunch of us piled into Winter's VW bus and made the trip up from Tacoma. Among us was a girl I'd never met before, Alexandra. She was friends with Angela and was up from Vancouver, WA to see the show. She was pretty.

I was 17 and had never kissed a girl. Alex took a shine to me, and when the zipper on my boot (heh) broke during Seaweed, she helped me fix it, then led me by the hand back into the pit. We got separated, I got knocked out, and I spent the next ten minutes or so wandering around the lobby in a daze, trying to remember what show I was at and hoping against hope that the girl I remembered was real.

She was indeed, and we reconnected and watched Mudhoney from the seats, arms around each other. The pit at this show, like all other Paramount/Moore/etc. shows I remember from that era, had grown to overtake the first three rows of seats, which ended up a twisted broken mess by the end of the night.

I saw Alex several more times over the following months, and she ended up being the first girl I kissed. I was looking through old journals tonight, and while I remember those few months as blissed-out paradise, I can see now that for the most part I was just confused and nervous.

The week after we kissed she sent me a letter telling me she didn't think we should see each other any more. I was heartbroken, but we remained friends for several years and my friends and I went down to Vancouver and visit her and her best friend Dave often.

Perhaps I've been out of the loop, but this is the first I've heard that Del Toro will be taking the lead on that project. He's no Peter Jackson, but then again, Peter Jackson is no Guillermo Del Toro. I'm excited.

Why did they decide to go that route? I realize that it's very easy to take both still photos and video on the same device, and I imagine the majority of Flickr's users do just that. But you know what? Flickr is a great photo sharing site. Its flow, interface, and aesthetic are built towards displaying static images, and shoehorning videos into that experience makes it seem, well, broken.

I'm happy with YouTube's shitty quality for the shitty videos I record on my point-and-shoot. I don't like Flickr calling my photos "things" instead of "images." I'm worried by this kitchen sink approach, which goes against the web 2.0, lean-and-mean, single-vision ideal that made Flickr so great in the first place. (I'm more worried by Microsoft's threats to buy out Yahoo!, but that's a different story.)

It was awesome. Ingo got a few drinks in her at McLeod and decided she was game for another night out after all. They had a Guitar Hero setup, a Rock Band setup, a big karaoke stage in the main theater, a smaller karaoke stage backstage, and a more intimate SBK-style room set up upstairs. And they had lots of costumes. And cheap drinks. And free banh mi! And the second huge pillowfight I've witnessed in a week (what's up with all these pillowfights all of a sudden?)

I took just over 600 photos, and I'm slowly making my way through them today. I've got another photo gig this evening, shooting Lindy West's birthday party at the VIP room. My Flickr stream will hit 10,000 photos before the weekend is up...